Saturday, 21 July 2007

Is it possible to think too much? See here. Bernard Williams once accused utilitarians of having “one thought too many.” It’s often said of athletes that they think too much (for their own good). Don’t progressives, in general, think too much, in the sense of trying to plan, arrange, and order society? Conservatives are much more comfortable with habits, practices, and institutions, which embody the thinking of many generations of individuals. You might say that progressives have faith in reason, while conservatives are leery of reason. How often in human history has some well-reasoned plan made things worse rather than better? It’s an instance of the law of unintended consequences. Progressives think the world is unjust because not enough thinking is going on. If we would only think more, both individually and collectively, we would improve it. Conservatives think the world is unjust because too much thinking (planning, scheming, organizing, theorizing) is going on. If we think more, we’re liable to make it worse.